As is well known, over and above the obvious reasons for placing shingles upon a building, i.e. that of weather protection, it is highly desirable that the roofing be attractive and that there be as little material waste as possible during the installation. The advent of the composition shingle which covered a greater area with a single unit, allowed a roofer to more quickly place a roof upon a building thereby greatly decreasing the labor costs. The material cost of a composition roof is also less than that of a wooden shindle and therefore the composition shingle has become a highly desirable and much used roofing material.
One of the reasons the composition shingle takes fewer man hours or less labor time to place upon the roof is that fact that it comes with, in actuality as noted above, more than one shingle in a given shingling unit. Since the edges of a gabled roof are essentially in a straight line it is necessary to stagger the multi-shingle unit such that the artificial differentiation and/or slot for the shingles does not match-up with the slot of the shingle immediately adjacent thereto resulting in parallel unbroken lines. The staggering of the shingles is for esthetic purposes but primarily because the channels formed by the separation slots tend to be the collectors of the rain water run-off. It is desirable in terms of a long life for the roof to cause the run-off to flow from one collector to a broad non-collecting area. The flow from a collector to a non-collecting area also continually moves the run-off to stay at the outermost surface.
With this in mind it has been the practice of roofers to lay down the first row of shingles utilizing a full three shingle unit and then staggering each unit from this particular shingle, such that both the esthetic appearance and the weather resistance is maximized. One of the problems with the required staggering of the shingles is that this method of installation requires a roofer to cut a majority of the shingle units in order to properly begin each successive row. The necessity of cutting the units results in scraps which must either be discarded or transported to the other end of the roof. Even if the scraps are carried to the opposite end of the roof, this requirement results in a non-productive period for the individual doing the transporting.
With the above-noted problems and prior art in mind it is an object of the present invention to provide a template whereby a roofer, be he amateur or professional, can quickly and easily take multi-tab shingle units and precut them to the desired size. The proper cutting of the shingle units enables the roofing to be begun without any scrap material being wasted and/or carried to the other end of the roof.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a template whereby the shingles are precisely cut to predetermined size such that the diagonal lines across the roof, formed by the line of slots or grooves, which differentiate the individual tabs, will be perfectly straight and thus pleasing to the eye.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a template which is straightforward and easy to use such that a novice roofer may prepare his shingles as quickly and easily as a professional thereby greatly decreasing the time involved and eliminating the waste.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a template which comprises a thin, flat, main body portion having a plurality of parallel slots therein and upstanding guide elements to assure the proper placement of the shingle and thus proper sized cut elements.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a template whereby the template has an upstanding edge which abutts against the end of a composition shingle and includes a first slot parallel to the edge 5 1/8 inches therefrom, a second slot parallel to the edge 5 1/8 inches from the first slot, a third slot 1 6/8 inches from the second slot and a fourth slot 3 3/8 inches from the fourth slot.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for precutting shingles such that three composition shingles provide a start for six rows. The first shingle will be cut using the slot closest to the edge guide of the template. The second shingle will be cut using the guide slot second from the edge of the template and the third shingle will be cut utilizing the third and fourth slots cutting the shingle into three pieces. When placing the shingles upon the roof the bottom row will utilize a full shingle. The second row will utilize the largest piece following the first cut, the small piece being utilized for the last row. The second cut shingle unit will yield two pieces, the largest piece for the beginning of the second row and the smaller of the two pieces for the next to the last row. The third shingle cut will provide the third and fourth row.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a means to cut shingles whereby three shingles are placed upside down upon a solid surface and a template having predetermined slots therein and guide edges placed above the shingles. The operator then makes one cut through the topmost shingle, removes the resultant pieces, makes one cut in the second shingle, removes the resultant pieces and makes two cuts in the third shingle removing said pieces and then utilizes the pieces to form six rows of shingles on a roof.